Perfect Love... Gone Wrong

Page 3 of the 4 page Cloak & Dagger Marvel sample.

I've worked and reworked that 3rd panel far too many times. In fact, I was working on that panel while in Chicago. I had to run down to the local Jewel Osco at roughly 10 PM to buy a pencil, a pencil sharpener and some invisible tape so I could do a quick fix on the left hand figure before showing it to CB on the Sunday of the show. I've reworked it again, since getting home from the con. It's not perfect but it's soooo much better than it was before.

More con recap on Monday. I promise.

Symphony No. 9 in D minor

This is page 2 of the 4 page Marvel sample I showed to a few people. There are supposed to be images in the monitors/holoscreens but I ran out of time to draw the scenes that Stuart had asked for. They were to be shots of destruction and death as a result of superhero battles. It was Cloak's very own "A Clockwork Orange" moment.

Sorry Charlie

I know. This was supposed to be part II of my C2E2 wrap up. What can I say. I suck at writing real copy. But, for all the interested, I'll be posting pages of my latest Marvel sample that I showed around at C2E2 until I can get the recap post written. This page is the first of 4 pages I did from the recent Cloak & Dagger one shot.

That makes up for my tardiness, yes?

Everything Is Broken

I've shifted gears a bit and have begun working on some Marvel sample pages. My plan is to have at least 5 pages of pencils ready to show C.B. Cebulski at C2E2, which is a brand new convention happening in Chicago in less than 2 weeks. I was going to work from a Spider-Man Team Up script that C.B. had given me but I had the good fortune of getting writer/editor Stuart Moore to let me use one of his scripts, instead. The script I'm working from now is the Cloak & Dagger one shot that just came out called, "The Broken Church". So far, the roughs are looking good. Let's hope the final penciled pages turn out solid!

Neon Knights

click Moon Knight to see him bigger

Moon Knight is another Marvel character I've had an interest in drawing. Although, I think I've only really dug Moon Knight when Bill Sienkiewicz was drawing him. I was planning on doing a Moon Knight sample to show CB Cebulski while I attend the upcoming Heroes Con, but other projects popped up and I had to rethink how I spent my drawing time. So, for now, my Moon Knight sample will have to wait.

Good + Bad Times

These pages are from the Marvel Age Team Up #4 script by Todd Dezago. Big shout out to Todd for sending me the script! I had a lot of fun doing this and I hope that it made me a stronger artist. There are definitely things I would change. No page is without some need of tweeking, that's for sure. But, as promised, here are the 5 sample pages I took with me to the Emerald City Comic Con... warts and all. Feedback is always welcome. Good or bad, as long as it is constructive, it's all good.

page 1

page 2

page 3

page 4

page 5

Emotional Weather Report

I'm back from the Emerald City Comic Con and I must say I thought the show was excellent! Good crowd, good mix of artists and publishers and the event was beautifully managed. Smooth as glass... not like the clusterfrick that is SDCC. Anyways... my ECCC report:

I saw CB Cebulski first thing Saturday morning and showed him my Thor/Spidey sample pages. For the most part, he thought they were strong and offered to supply me with more scripts to draw from. I'll definitely take him up on the offer and give another Marvel sample a go.

I also got an excellent crit from Erik Larsen, of Savage Dragon fame. He's notorious for giving brutally honest crits, so I was a little worried about being destroyed in public. Either I caught him on a good day or he actually thought I did a pretty good job because I left his table feeling good about my work. He gave me a few good things to lookout for, which was exactly what I needed to hear.

My last portfolio review of the show didn't go as well. Editor supreme, Bob Schreck, was doing reviews so I thought I jump in line and see what he had to say. Getting a chance to show work to someone with that amount of experience is an amazing opportunity that I couldn't pass up. But, man, I should have just continued looking for deals on Kirby Fourth World hardcovers, instead. He was very friendly and engaging but boy did he hit me hard. I won't go into the gory details but he definitely tested my resolve to draw comics as a professional.

The rest of the show was spent talking to wonderfully talented people like Dan Cooney, Jay Faerber, Jimmie Robinson, Ed Brisson, Steve Niles, Brian Churilla, Chris Moreno, Chrisian Beranek and Kris Simon.... Oh, and shopping for comics.

All in all, an excellent show that I look forward to attending next year.

I'll post the entire Marvel sample on Wednesday... worts and all.